The University of Sheffield School of Architecture
Studio Landscape + Urbanism / Landscapes of Remediation The studio looks at the idea of remediation as a driver for wellbeing. The studio looks at understanding what naturalised landscapes might be and in particular the nature of the post-industrial cities. The landscape is understood as an agent of change, constructed from cumulative change rather than a rigid reality1. Explorations then seek to develop synergies between landscapes and how we live and work within the modern city. The studio considers the changes within the demographics of the city and the impact that this has on the social needs of its inhabitants.
REMEDIATION STRATEGY - River Don
DETAIL OF GROWING MEDIUM LAYERS ABOVE PONTOON
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Located primarily along the Sheaf valley in Sheffield, the studio explores the valley section, charting the transformation of the landscape and its impact on the communities along the section line. Michel Desvigne looks at the long-time frame of landscapes and cities, exploring the notion of playing with time and its impact on ‘the coexistence of different stages of development that concentrate and condense, in a short period, processes with historical rhythms’2.
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4. A. 200mm thk Wetland soil, growing medium for reeds B. 80mm thk Pea gravel layer with average 6mm diameter (Texture transition) C. 600mm thk Gravel bed with average 20mm diameter crushed rocks
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As a studio we have explored through a research led agenda, the changes wrought on an urban landscape by economic, social and ecological agendas. Adopting where possible strategies of mitigation over adaption, looking particularly at the impact of health, housing, and education on the sustainable growth of a city. The resultant projects create briefs that are wide ranging but have a focus on the development of operative communities and how they in turn develop support networks for health and wellbeing, learning, working and living.
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EXPLODED ISOMETRIC OF FLOATING 3.Hardwood frame structure to hold growing medium 4. Water proof lining to prevent run offs 5. Common aquatic plants for water treatment : Cattails (Typha latifolia) Common Reed (Phragmites) Water hyacinth
PLAN + ELEVATION OF MODULAR PONTOON 1. Lug Fitting 2. Cube
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5th Year Students Abdulbari Kutbi Bart Smith Jess Beresford Viola Hänsel Yee Hua Chee
Visiting Tutors Hannah Smart Theo Bishop
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Field Trip to Germany together with studio CP 01 Yee Hua Chee - The Pop-Up Horticulture Centre This project focuses on areas near the River Don that was once a vital element in the city’s industrialisation that has now disintegrated into a site for waste accumulation and inactivity. In response to, the project proposes a remediative sequence that uses plants to revert the river and derelict sites around the area to their original importance and value. To ensure its sustenance, the building grows the plants that are part of the phytoremediation strategy with a clean water source drawn from the nearby river. This process is repeated until the soils are free from contamination, and in so doing, becomes a symbolic manifestation of remediation and compensation for the ravages of modern industry.
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02 Bart Smith - Sheffield Growing Exchange The building acts as a central hub for the wider remediation of the Sheaf Valley, and its current failings as a green corridor. The site seeks to act as the first link in a new network of temporary and permanent growing areas along the river. Here, seeds, skills and equipment can be exchanged in a place of growing, learning and living. The site is divided up into a series of courtyards bordered by brick walls that take inspiration from walled gardens of the past whilst responding to the urban context. 03 Jess Beresford - Abbeydale Tea Laundry Aiming to deal with the inevitable, pertinent question of how we live in later life, the focus of the project evolves around the interstitial demographic known as the ‘young-old’. Taking advantage of localised opportunities, the community network of dwellers, producers and partakers, is focused on the notion of exchange which is bound together through the particular activity of producing herbal teas. This process within the landscape provides a driver to remediate the urban scale through community custodianship of the landscape and the neighbourhood in which they live. 04 Viola Hänsel - Urban Valley Cycle This project looks at remediating the Sheaf Valley through the implementation of a cycle network which is linked to the river and therefore creates new access to unused urban space. It is designed as exciting and quick connection link between the city centre, the south of Sheffield and the Peak District. Small scale flexible workshop buildings and a central cycle hub with a multi storey bicycle park and a cycle hostel complete the scheme.
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1 James Corner, “Ecology and Landscape as Agents of Creativity,” Ecological Design and Planning. Eds George Thompson and Frederick Steiner, New York: John Wiley & Sons.1997. p 81
6th Year Students Adam Turnell Ben Craven David Gibson Harry Wright Patrich Mc Evoy Tom Stanton
DETAIL CONNECTION BETWEEN PONTOONS
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2 Michel Desvigne, “Introduction,” Intermediate Natures: The Landscapes of Michel Desvigne, Basel, Birkhauser, 2009, p. 12.
Studio Tutor Howard Evans
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To remove pollutants from the river water, floating reed beds are set to bob along the river edge. As the plants slowly absorb the pollutants away, the river is reintroduced as a floating green space for Kelham residents.
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phase 1 - water remediation
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construction phase :
1. Construct floating and vertical reed bed system. 2. Plant common reed plants ( Phragmites Australis) at 4 plants per m2 3. Arrange layers of gravel bed accordingly
water remediation process :
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4. Water drawn from river into horizontal reed bed system 5. Water passes through filtration layers to remove large suspended solids. 6. Water enters vertical reed bed system where cleaning process takes place. 7. Clean water is piped into timber water storage tanks nearby. 8. Water is piped into larger water storage at the centre of the site.
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05 Abdulbari Kutbi - The Cerulean Hall The post-industrial spaces of the Sheaf Valley have spawned a social and cultural divide between populations of different income, ethnicity, origin & education. The project repurposes a gradient corridor from Abbeydale Road to Broadfield Road, replacing redundants spaces with a new connective urban landscape. By capitalising on the largest population minority in the area, the programme takes the cultural basis of a mosque and prayer space and attaches it to a much more inclusive series of community spaces, exhibition areas and open access foyer. Ultimately, the work aims to suggest possible combinatorial approaches to a classic religious programme within the rich context of Sheffield. 02
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